Honours Seminar in Psychology

1
Honours Seminar in Psychology

• Lecture 2 Context of the Research Process

2
In groups of three, develop a scientific
hypothesis based on something you have found in
the newspaper

• Nominate someone to present this to the class
• What newspaper piece inspired the question?
• What is the scientific hypothesis?
• What research could be conducted?
• Other people in class should feel free to ask
  questions.

3
What testable hypotheses were created?

• Alice, Jennifer, Renee, Kate Giving children
  feedback about overall school performance
  improves their performance
• Heather, Sarah, Doreen Women will feel more
  excluded in decision-making in the workplace than
  men
• Brad, Melissa, Abey A persons on-line
  behaviour will predict their political ideology
• Jeanette, Jeff, Michael Have sex abuse scandals
  had a negative impact on the faith of church
  goers
• Alexis, Alexa, Quynn, Crystal, Abigail Do
  marriages with a bigger age gap have less
  education and income than others with similar
  ages
• Note Underlined persons spoke on behalf of group

4
What makes a scientific explanation?

• Empirical Objective and systematic observation,
  observable by the senses
• Rational Follows rules of logic and known fact
• Testable, falsifiable
• Parsimonious Requires the fewest assumptions
• General Laws
• Rigorously evaluated

5
What do polygraphs used in lie detector tests
measure?

6
Basic Vs. Applied

• Theory
• Empirical
• Real-world examples of a phenomenon not important
• Experimental

• Problem in the real-world
• Theoretically-based, but does not test theory
• Less controlled
• Can be less general

Were your newspaper-based questions basic or
applied questions?
7
Figure 1-4 The Research Process